Monday, September 12, 2011

On the last best day, the temperature was already eighty-eight degrees at eleven in the morning. It was exactly two weeks until the start of our senior year. Me and Kaycee were the first ones out at the lake.

Kaycee stretched languidly on her towel and turned to face me. Behind my sunglasses I snuck a look at her body and stifled a sigh. We wore our favorite matching bikinis, Kaycee’s in pink, mine black, but she looked so much better in hers.

She grinned at me like she was reading my mind. “Can you feel it?”

“Feel what?” I asked, even though I knew what she was going to say.

Kaycee sat up and not a single roll appeared on her stomach. “Today is going to be the Best. Day. Ever.”

“For you maybe,” I said, turning my eyes to the sky. “I’ll be stuck with a bunch of drunk old people tonight.”

Kaycee laughed. “Oh Bales, when will you learn?” She flopped down on her stomach. “A party is a party. Especially when there’s free drinks.”

* * *

On the last best day, Caleb slipped his hand into mine underwater as he swam past.

“Come here,” he said, low in my ear. Water dripped from his long lashes and the tip of his nose.

I let him pull me off the raft. Our hands clasped under the surface felt like a delicious secret. Kaycee and Jake and Aaron pretended not to notice when we sneaked off into the woods, but I could tell from Kaycee’s grin that she was thinking the same thing as me. Finally.

My heart thudded in my chest when we stopped in a cove of pines. Caleb shoved his wet hair back so it stood up in dark spikes. I thought my whole chest would explode when he locked his gray-green eyes on mine.

“I heard a rumor,” he said with a slight frown, “that you’re not coming out tonight.”

Tangled Fiction

Three Writers, One Story.

Welcome to Tangled Fiction, where three YA writers collaborate to complete one story!

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday one TF writer will post a piece of the same story. Each of us will be responsible for one beginning, middle, and end in a single month. The fourth week will be full of surprises, we're sure, and we'll share them with you when we know what they are.